This is lovely, Tonia Marie. So much imagery…and the smells. I can smell the beans and the vanilla and the tang. “The light of morning…” is my favorite paragraph, for colors and such. Just wonderful. Did you craft this while sitting in a coffee house?

Karen, thank you. That is my favorite stanza as well. I wish I could sit in a coffee house with my composition book, drink a latte, and write. I wrote this poem from that wish and tried to capture the atmosphere.

“I hate endings. Just detest them. Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster. . . . The temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me a terrible trap. Why not be more honest with the moment? The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That’s genius.” ― Sam Shepard